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GLASS IN ARCHITECTURE

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YALE UNIVERSITY SCULPTURE BUILDING: GLASS IN ARCHITECTURE

Kieran Timberlake - Yale University Sculpture Building and Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut

Atmospheric Effects of the Fins on the Interior Spaces 

Yale University’s Sculpture Building and Gallery, in New Haven, Connecticut, has been classified as a Platinum LEED building. Designed by Kieran Timberlake and associates, the project was presented with a number of requirements and desires by the client for the interior space conditions, daylighting, and other facets which were addressed to its fullest potential, through research, testing, and experimentation. Kieran Timberlake and associates have exerted all possibilities for the most efficient uses of its resources; recycling, sun orientation, and ventilation technologies and techniques.

The purpose and focus of this article will bring you into the interior spaces of the Yale Sculpture building, experiencing the full volume studio spaces and its overall atmospheric effects of the fin-screening, applied only to the South and East facing facades. 

One of the goals of the Sculpture building was to achieve ample daylighting but minimizing solar heat gain. This is very notable for the spaces that are being exposed to this harsh sunlight. The building consists of three floors of 14 feet high (4.3m) studio spaces, sitting on top of the ground and basement levels housing the classrooms, workshops, administrative spaces and utilities. 

Natural light is taken full advantage of through the construction of the almost full transparent curtain walls  around the studio spaces. It features a triple glazed, low-e vision panel, 8-foot high operable windows and translucent double cavity spandrel panels.

 These translucent spandrel panels are composed of a Aerogel that acts as a insulator as well as a light penetrable medium.  This allows the whole wall to illuminate light, leaving a 2% daylight factor.

In order to determine the type of shading required, the solar exposure was tracked and resulted in the present  sun screening system. This tracking concluded that the south and East facades would require horizontal shading, further research of the altitude, azimuth, and travel path of the sun, calculated the angle and dimensions of the shaders. Lighting sensors in the studio spaces are programed to switch off when their is no occupancy detected in the space. They also adjust according to the amount of natural illumination.

The fins present the appropriate kind of light suitable for a working environment. Especially that of a studio space, where studies have shown that individuals are proven to work more efficiently, comfortably, and productively in the presents of natural light. The fin-screening creates a relaxed open atmosphere, and enables views of the surrounding environment. The interior spaces are naturally light-up with a diffused light reaching far into the spaces. This is resulting from the translucent full length windows and and the spandrel panels as well. The angle of the shaders assists with this effect with the addition of a selection of materials. The space has exposed structural steel and floor slabs which act as a thermal mass in the winter. The space is generally monochromatic with white walls on some floors reflecting light back towards the center of the space, creating an even distribution of illumination. This is also created by the polished concrete slabs deflecting the light. Shadows seem to have been intentionally avoided. 

    As originally intended the shaders minimize solar heat gain during the summer months, and during the cold winter months the sun has a very low altitude of 25 degrees at midday, allowing solar radiation to penetrate the glazing and to be stored in the exposed concrete slabs.

 The seasonal sun differentiation can be seen in the diagram. 

The Yale University Sculpture Building creates a environment appropriate to its many uses. This achieved through the proper use of resources, adequate research, planning, and uses of technologies. “The first objective is to do as much as possible with as little as possible.” - Architect Stephen Kieran


LINKS: http://kierantimberlake.com/home/index.html
www.brandonmscott.com

BORGUND STAVE CHURCH DOWN TO SCALE

Built around 1180 and is dedicated to the Apostle Andrew. The church is exceptionally well preserved and is one of the most distinctive stave churches in Norway. Some of the finest features are the lavishly carved portals and the roof carvings of dragons's heads. The stavchurches are Norway's most important contribution to world architecture and Norway's oldest preserved timber buildings.

Description from:  http://www.visitnorway.com/en/Product/?pid=47214

As a first year history assignment we were given the choice to do one of four possible tasks. The project required annotated drawings, 3D digital model, essay, and a physical model. I saw this as the opportunity to add something physical to my architectural portfolio. I chose the physical model of one of the most challenging structures that were presented to us. The Borgund Stave church fit that description, plus not ever hearing about this historic church in Norway, thought it would give me the chance to learn something new.

The Church took 100hours to build and was entirely constructed with balsa wood, at a 1:75 scale. This scale may seem odd but it fit the appropriate measures for the project. Recovering working drawings were very difficult to attain and after contacting numerous sources in Norway, I was left with a plan with no dimensions and a axonometric section through the church. These were the only references I had so excuse me if it is not exactly what the church appears. 

For more see: www.brandonmscott.com

ST. JAMES TOWN IN THE SPIRIT OF MVRDV

ST. JAMES TOWN PROPOSAL IN THE SPIRIT OF MVRDV VIDEO

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSy5DWi0a7A&feature=related St. James Town is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and is a urban renewal development project gone wrong. Its an misinterpreted attempt at Corb's Towers in the Park concept. STJ was built in the 1960s and is the largest high-rise community in Canada, it is also one of Toronto's poorest communities. As a assignment in my "The Human World" class a group of students were allocated to develop a design proposal derived in the spirit of a specific firm. The firm which was selected was MVRDV. 
PROPOSAL FLY-THROUGH ANIMATION

LINK: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFkMrb6ce8  

CANJELAE TAYLOR MAKING DREAMS INTO REALITY

THE HOTTEST THING TO COME OUT OF BERMUDA  
Although this post strays from the initial topic of this blog, Canjelae Taylor a.k.a The Bermudian Songbird has blown people away with her beautiful and one of a kind voice. The voice is positively the most angelic voice I have ever heard, making it not a question of if she'll make it, but when. You can often catch Canjelae singing at Ryles Lounge at Artistlive Boston, who's prime goal is to search for the waiting to be discovered new talent in Boston, Massachusetts, and spread the word. Canjelae has definitely caught the eye of numerous record labels such as, Atlantic Records, and Capitol Records. Canjelaé this Bermudian Songbird is singing her way to her dreams.  

Atlantic Records VP of A&R Darrale Jones Hosts "Artist Live Boston"

To see more on Canjelae see www.Canjelae.com, http://twitter.com/canjelae, http://www.facebook.com/Canjelae?ref=ts

WOOD WORKS 2009 PICNIC SHELTER

Department of Architectural Science students award winners for picnic shelter

By Antoinette Mercurio

Third-year students from the Department of Architectural Science won first place in the Best Marketing Plan category for their picnic shelter design in the 2008 Wood Product Design Competition. From left: Hitesh Doshi, Architecture Professor; Michael Grunstra, student advisor; Rosa Umana Rosales, student advisor; Bill Thornton, Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Natural Resources; Donna Cansfield, Minister of Natural Resources; Kevin Shonubi; Dario McPhee; Brandon Scott; Jason Borg; and Ryan Alexander.

       A team of third-year Ryerson students from the Department of Architectural Science won the first-place prize for Best Marketing Plan in the 2008 Wood Product Design Competition. Sponsored by the Canadian Wood Council Wood Works program, the competition is a real-life problem-solving exercise.

Students are challenged to examine trends, barriers and opportunities that relate to the forest products sector and then use this information to create viable products that overcome existing challenges or take advantage of new opportunities. The Ryerson team, which consisted of Ryan Alexander, Jason Borg, Dario McPhee, Brandon Scott, and Kevin Shonubi, designed and built a picnic shelter which was built on campus during Orientation.

Ryerson went up against 16 teams from seven schools throughout Ontario. The students were presented with their award by Donna Cansfield, Minister of Natural Resources, at the Ontario Wood Works Awards Gala in Toronto.

"This project was of tremendous educational value," said Kendra Schank Smith, Chair, Department of Architectural Science. "This is a wonderful example of actually getting out there, working on site and learning by doing. I couldn't have been prouder of everyone involved."

Marianne Berube, Ontario Executive Director, and Steven Street, Technical Director, of the Canadian Wood Council came to Ryerson to personally congratulate the five-person Ryerson team.  "We really want to make an impression on young people and help guide their career choices," Berube said.

"The students found it of enormous value to be so engaged with professionals in the wood industry," Professor Hitesh Doshi, Department of Architectural Science, said. "They gained knowledge about wood products and wood design. In addition, this project provided the students with a real-life example of seeing design come to fruition. For some, this type of experience only comes after graduation. To have such an experience in an undergraduate program was highly meaningful and will be remembered."

In total, three Ryerson teams entered the competition. The winning students were inspired by the teepee to build their picnic shelter. They wanted something that could easily support itself without any complicated attachments.

"We hoped to do well but didn't expect to win," Jason Borg said. "We were shocked and surprised to win. This competition gave us a taste of the real world. It provided us with a lot of opportunities to network and meet many people in the wood industry."


A TIME LAPSE VIDEO OF THE SHELTER CONSTRUCTION

Link:http://www.ryerson.ca/news/news/General_Public/20081217_WoodProduct.html

To see the actual construction of the shelter  click this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ1OFNUZ_Sg

FRONT STREET BERMUDA PANORAMA

Photo by: Brandon M. Scott

Thought it would be interesting to see front street in bermuda in a panorama image. This shot is taken from inside the birdcage, at Queen and Front street

STUDENTS ARE BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

Budding architects will work on Bermuda’s historic homes during summer internship
By Don Burgess

Colin Campbell is looking to the past to help preserve Bermuda’s buildings for the future. 
The regional director for design firm OBMI is launching a summer internship programme for budding architects based on a successful scheme he ran 16 years ago.
The project could see students work on historic buildings such as Tucker House, the Unfinished Church, Verdmont, ­Waterville, Tivoli, Springfield and Ships Inn.
Mr. Campbell hopes other architectural firms will unite to help the students and provide drawings that can be donated to the Bermuda National Trust.
He said: “There is a requirement to invest in the future. 
“Times and tides continue to pulse and we need, as a community, to invest in scholarship and good effort.
Ancient
“In a normal economic run, students of value present their skills sets and are absorbed by the economic community — but this isn’t a normal time.
 “In 1993, under similar economic circumstances, my partner and good friend, Maurice Terceira, and I decided something had to be done.”

STUDENTS URGED TO PLUG DESIGN GAP

Architectural firm OBM reaches out amid shortage of local talent


Thinking about a career in architecture or interior design? You've picked the right time to do so. According to some Bermudian design/consulting companies, there is a shortage of local talent on the island.

We spoke with several students pursuing careers in this field as well as one of OBM's top interior designers, Michelle Smith, to see how to get involved in this ever-growing industry.

OBM is an international interior design, master planning and architecture firm that began life in Bermuda more than 75 years ago.

This year, in a bid to get young Bermudians involved in the business, they have hired three summer students.

"We encourage students going into the field to make an effort to work in local Bermudian firms early," Ms Smith said.

"If you work somewhere else in the summer you might not have the connections later on."

This year's summer students are kept busy archiving files, site-surveying and preparing drawings - to name a few things.

ARCHITECTURAL DIGITAL TOOLS

Those days of paper and pencil are long gone, but we all knew this.  I wasn't required to pick up a pencil since my first year in Architecture school, and that was just a means of breaking us down, and filtering out the meek. Now in fourth year, we find our selves working strictly with digital tools such as; the 3D modelling prototype, and the laser cutter. With this you can see in a few years there will be no need to present projects on paper, just digital projections, or even holograms.  

The image above is a project done for one of my digital tools classes, created in AutoCad, 3DMax, and Rhino. It was then loaded into Ryerson University's new laser cutter (apart of the new digital fabrication lab) and then cut out of 3mm thick blue plexi-glass. The image is actually only a rendering of the final product. Believe me the final product did not look any different from this. The project was to create a lamp shade using only the laser cutter, and a Ikea lamp cord needed to me incorporated into the assembly.

YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN ARCHITECTURE WHEN...

1. ...the alarm clock tells you when to go to sleep.
2. ...you're not ashamed of drooling in the office anymore, especially in the Structures lecture.
3. ...you know what UHU tastes like.
4. ...you CELEBRATE space and OBSERVE your birthday.
5. ...coffee and cokes are tools, not treats.
6. ...people get nauseous just by smelling your caffeine breath.
7. ...you get surprised when you see a new building in your office complex.
8. ...you think it's possible to CREATE space.
9. ...you've slept more than 20 hours non-stop in a single weekend.
10. ...you fight with inanimate objects.
11. …you've fallen asleep in the washroom.
12. …your brother or sister thinks he or she is an only child.
13. ...you've listened to all your cds in less than 48 hours.
14. ...you're not seen in public.
15. ...you lose your house keys for a week and you don't even notice.
16. ...you've brushed your teeth and washed your hair in the office washroom.
17. ...you've discovered the benefits of having none or very short hair. You've started to appreciate inheriting baldness.
18. ...you've used an entire role of film to photograph the sidewalk.
19. ...you know the exact time the vending machines are refilled.
20. ...you always carry your deodorant.
21. ...you become excellent at recycling when making models.
22. ...when you try to communicate, you make a continuous and monotonous whine.
23. ...you've danced YMCA with excellent choreography at 3 am and without a single drop of alcohol in your body.
24. ...you take notes and messages with a rapidograph and colour markers.
25. ...you combine breakfast, lunch and dinner into one single meal.
26. ...you see holidays only as extra sleeping time.
27. ...you've got more photographs of buildings than of actual people.
28. ...you've taken your girlfriend (boyfriend) on a date to a construction site.
29. ...you've realised that French curves are not that exciting.
30. …you can live without human contact, food or daylight, but if you can't print. it's chaos.
31. when you are being shown pictures of a trip, you ask what the human scale is.
32. ...you can use Photoshop, Illustrator and make a web page, but you don't know how to use Excel.
33. ...You refer to great architects (dead or alive) by their first name, as if you knew them. (Frank, Corbu, Mies, Norman...)
34. ...you buy 50 dollar magazines that you haven't read yet.
35. ...when someone offers you a Bic pen, you feel offended.

Original Link: http://architechnophilia.blogspot.com/2005/04/you-know-youre-in-architecture-when.html

Link:http://blog.miragestudio7.com/wp-content/uploads2/2007/10/architecture_comic_funny_architect_comics_architects4.jpg

THE CREATIVE MIND AT WORK

A humorous concept which all architectural students share no matter where you study is that, if your work space does not look like a tornado just ran through it, you must be doing something wrong. The messier your space the better designs you will produce. Release your frustrations, and try and try again and it will soon come together. Producing a number of experiential models and exercises can assist with the design development. As you can see from this picture taken of my living room just a few hours before my final thesis was due, a few men were lost but it was all worth it for the completion of a solid thesis.